Etymologies

withe + -y1. N., from Middle English withye, willow branch, from Old English wīthig, willow; see wei- in Indo-European roots.

(American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)

Examples

The withy is a reasonable large tree, (for some have been found ten foot about) is fit to be planted on high banks, and ditch-sides within reach of water and the weeping sides of hills; because they extend their roots deeper than either sallows or willows.

Several summers back, when the West Moor withy beds were flooded with stagnant river water full of sewage and dead fish after heavy rains, not a single person from the Environment Agency would come out to inspect the ailing willows.

A good many naturalists and walkers come to West Moor and appreciate the culture as well as the nature of the withy beds, yet Brian says the Environment Agency has plans to flood the place permanently.

Comments

'...perhaps you can get up at five in the morning, and go down to Cordery's Moor, and watch by the great withypollard which hangs over the backwater, where the otters breed sometimes, and then say, if otters at play in the water are not the merriest, lithest, gracefullest creatures you ever saw."_Water Babies, Charles Kingsley, 1937